The Spotted House snake, Lamprophis guttatus, belongs to Southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...

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Lamprophis

Lamprophis is a genus of colubrid snakes commonly referred to as African house snakes. They are small, non-venomous snakes. They exhibit a wide variety of pattern variation, and may be spotted, striped, or solid colored...

(house snake) species.

Description

It has unique patterning on the body, which is not easily confused with other Southern African snakes. Spotted House Snakes are small and slender, with the average length of 40–60 cm (15.7–23.6 ), and a maximum length of 65 centimetres (25.6 in). The body is cream white to light brown, with round spots, witch are dark brown. sometimes the spots are connected. The eyes are medium sized, copper brown and with vertical pupils. The head is very flat and broad, which is probably an adaptation for accessing narrow rock crevices.

Scale count

Midbody scale rows range from 21 to 25, the anal shield is entire and the subcaudals (46–72) are paired. There are between 186 and 230 ventral scales, the ventral and dorsal scales are smooth and highly polished.

Biology

Spotted House snakes are habitat specialists, occurring in rocky areas, often hiding under exfoliating rock flakes or between narrow crevices. They are nocturnal and hunt for crevice-living lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...

s. In captivity they are known to take small rodents as well.

Reproduction

Small clutches of between three and six eggs are laid in summer. Eggs measure 38 by 20 mm (1.5 by 0.78740157480315 ).

Distribution

The Spotted House snake is widespread in the eastern parts of South Africa. The distribution also extends up the West Coast into Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

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